Kirk Says U.S. Visa Restrictions Hobbling Business Efforts

By Eric Martin -
Mar 5, 2012

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk
said the nation’s policy for issuing visas is hurting the
economy by limiting tourism and blocking overseas buyers of
American products from coming to the U.S. for training.

“We will engage on the visa issue, which is frankly
crippling us right now,” Kirk said today in Washington. “We
hear from business after business, ‘We go, we make these sales,
and my customers can’t get a visa to come here to learn how to
use the product.’ We are past-due to have a common-sense
immigration policy, and we need to have visa reform as part of
that.”

In January, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the nation
needs to ease restrictions on immigrants who plan to open U.S.
businesses, and create a separate visa for potential
entrepreneurs.

Efforts at overhauling immigration laws are stymied in
Congress, including a proposal to let temporary foreign workers
enter the U.S. and help illegal immigrants advance toward
citizenship. The debate has overshadowed the need to change the
U.S. visa program, according to the Chamber, the largest
business group.

Current laws make it difficult for people to enter the U.S.
and start a business, according to a Jan. 25 report from the
Chamber and the Immigration Policy Center of the American
Immigration Council, a Washington-based nonprofit. Expansion of
the visa program would also aid companies’ access to foreign-
born graduates of U.S. universities, helping economic growth,
the authors of the report said.

Speeding Visas

President Barack Obama on Jan. 19 gave the departments of
Homeland Security and State 60 days to write a plan for speeding
visa applications from China and Brazil. Obama’s order
recommends cutting the process to three weeks from four months.

Visa-processing capacity in China and Brazil must increase
40 percent in the next year, according to the order.

“Our tourism numbers are up, but one of the things
constraining it is the difficulty some people are having in
getting visas,” Kirk said in remarks at a meeting today of the
National Association of Counties.

Speeding the visa progress may create 1.3 million jobs and
add $850 billion to the economy by 2020, the National Retail
Federation said in a Jan. 19 report, citing the U.S. Travel
Association.